Avatar and Family Systems

Newsletter - 2 February 2010

(This is an old newsletter which I am posting so that I can remove it from my website.)

Sci-Fi stories are like Brussels sprouts!

You either love them or you hate ‘em!

I love Brussels sprouts – I hate Sci-Fi.

For me the human specimens on this planet are far more intriguing to explore than the flights of fancy - and probably chemically enhanced – mental constructs of some aging hippy hack. After all – what better way to avoid facing reality, than to waft off into some fantasy world where the characters have to take responsibility for their actions, but you don’t! Anyway, that’s what I thought!

And then along came Avatar!

First of all – and for the record – I absolutely loved Avatar from first frame to last! I believe it is a landmark production on multiple levels, and a credit to the creative genius and vision of writer/director James Cameron.

Sure, there have been the dissenters and Sci-Fi Snobs who criticize the simplicity and familiarity of Avatar’s storyline, but the box office numbers and fan club websites prove that they are by far in the minority. It always amazes me that someone who probably can’t take a shot of his family with an automatic digital camera without cutting off someone’s head or feet feels qualified to criticize something the caliber of Avatar.

Ah….don’t you just love freedom of speech sometimes!

As a Family Constellations facilitator with an interest in Shamanic tradition and ritual, I found some beautiful concepts woven into the fabric of this en grossing fantasy.

Another concept in Avatar that really grabbed my fancy was how the Na’vi would connect their tails to those of a horse or dragon that they wanted to ride. The life force would flow between humanoid and animal and they would literally “become one”. This reminds me very much of how we connect in Family Constellations work. Participants in a works to heal traumas. Merely through their intention to be part of the healing process for another person, the representative can begin to register the feelings, hopes, fears and even fate of the person “in whose shoes they are standing”.

The first scene to really grab my attention was when the lead character Jake, in his avatar form, is separated from his research group and has to spend the night alone in a forest on Pandora. He comes under attack from a pack of hideous looking wild dogs but is rescued by Neytiri, a female of the native Na'vi tribe. Her skillful use of a bow and arrows quickly sends a number of the dogs off to “the happy hunting ground”, but she clearly does not relish being their executioner. When Jake tries to thank Neytiri she tells him in no uncertain terms that the taking of these lives is not something for which one should be grateful and which, but for his stupidity, would have been unnecessary. Neytiri then ritually honors the spirit of one of the dogs who has been left wounded, as she ends his life.

Indigenous people living in sync with nature and the other species on our planet have a long tradition of honoring the spirits of animals killed when hunting. Prayers of gratitude for the sacrifice made in order to sustain the lives of others, is as natural to them as praying for a sick friend in hospital would be for some of us. But we no longer offer up prayers for the billions of cows, sheep, pigs and chicken that are processed in our factories.

Hell, most of us don’t even bother to say grace before our meals anymore!

The massacre of the dogs brings home to us the sacredness of all life and reminded me of that horrendous buffalo slaughter scene in Dances with Wolves. The image of hundreds of skinned carcasses littering the prairie still haunts me today, as I ponder how masterful our species has become at killing other life forms unconsciously. Other commentators on Avatar have also referred to Kevin Costner’s masterpiece and claim that Avatar is merely rehashing some of the same themes. I would like to point out that Costner took to the saddle 20 years ago for that epic, so a massive percentage of Avatar’s target market weren't even born then! It’s as silly an argument as saying you can’t write another song about “love” because it has been done before, or refusing to go and see a Shakespeare play because you know how it ends.

One of the basic tenants of Family Constellations work is that “every family member has the equal right to belong in the system”. The Na’vi seem to understand this. When you put aside all the stories and opinions, and connect in the energy field that links family members, you get insight from the very level of the Soul. Then all judgments and myopic points-of-view start to melt away. Then the idea that ultimately “we are all one” and come from the same source, becomes more than simply a concept.

The source of all life and the focus of worship for the Na’vi is Eywa, similar to our concept of a Mother Goddess or Lady Gaia. The Goddess was the focus of worship for humans many millennia ago and we are returning to her bosom after a rather hectic time with her male counterpart – particularly during the last 6 thousand years. Cameron captures the contrast between these great polarities as Colonel Miles Quaritch and his brain-washed militias blow the Na’vi’s habitat Hometree to smithereens and almost succeed in doing the same to their sacred place of worship, the Tree of Souls.

The use of the term “shock and awe” in one part of the dialogue leaves us in no doubt that writer and director James Cameron is critical of America’s involvement in the War in Iraq. He is quoted as having said, "We know what it feels like to launch the missiles.

We don't know what it feels like for them to land on our home soil in America." Well, the destruction of the Hometree scene sure gives one some sense of what it might be like to be in Baghdad; Gaza or anywhere else when these bullyboys test out their latest war toys on ones family and friends. The image that is most indelibly stamped on my mind is the “shock and horror” on Neytiri’s face as one of her beloved horses runs past engulfed in flames during the onslaught.

Cameron is also quoted as saying that, “Avatar is definitely not anti-American." Well, he would have to say that, wouldn’t he – if he wanted to get bums onto seats? But he is probably quite right because this drama is more about anti-imperialism, and while it uses images which are as familiar to us as those on an Evening News Report, it also dredges up much more from our collective unconscious. It revives memories of the exploitation by European colonists of indigenous tribes and natural resources in Africa, South America, North America, Australia, and elsewhere in the world, which are well and truly still alive in our family systems today. If you don’t believe me, then join us for a Family Constellations workshop, and witness the far reaching tentacles of the “sins of the father”.

One of the most intriguing reports about Avatar was how many people began suffering from depression after seeing the film. Apparently the sheer beauty of Pandora on screen had many registering their own realities as being far too drab by comparison.

This, for me, opens up very exciting possibilities!

Could it mean that many more people are waking up to the fact that we are creating a veritable shit hole on this planet and that it might be time to start visualizing a new alternative?

Avatar is far more than a rip-roaring, action-packed, CGI dominated adventure yarn. It carries within its fantastical imagery the dream of creating a new world and a golden age – a place where our species can lives in sync with the other species around us, and in harmony with Mother Nature herself.

Those of you who were able to move out of your heads and into your hearts when watching Avatar, know what I mean!